The Packing Pod! Cut out hidden holiday costs: foreign exchange, insurance, travelling with kids & more

Martin is in full holiday mode – revealing everything you need to know right now to cut the cost of getting away. From the cheapest ways to spend overseas and avoiding costly currency conversion traps, to finding the right travel insurance, beating roaming charges and the single-person supplements, Martin answers listeners’ biggest travel money questions and shares the practical tips that could save you hundreds before you even leave home. Away from the holiday theme, Martin also takes on some of the biggest consumer issues closer to home. He explains when – and if – we're likely to see lower energy standing charges, why he believes recent regulator interventions have had the unintended consequence of pushing up the cost of broadband and mobile deals, and asks why Britain still doesn’t have a single, unified social tariff system for water bills to support those who need help most. For this week’s Tell Us, we're looking for the insiders' guide to travel. We hear the secrets of the trade from people who’ve worked as a holiday reps, in a hotel, for an airline, tour operator or anywhere in the travel industry, explaining what holidaymakers should know about – from getting the best room and avoiding unnecessary extras to making the most of your trip for less. And in Mastermind, Martin puts Adrian’s knowledge to the test with a questions focused on pensions. If you want to ask Martin a question, you now can! His Question Time podcast lets you ask Martin absolutely anything and everything (within reason!). So, if you’ve always wanted to know his favourite weather, which factor suncream he uses, or have a very complicated question about your finances, email it to [email protected] mailto:[email protected].

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 1:24Speaker 02

  Coffee? Love a cup of tea.

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• 1:33Martin Lewis?

  Almost everybody will be accepted for this card. You should get your travel insurance as soon as you book. If you have already booked, then you should get your travel insurance now. Are paying more than they would do if they did my suggestion, which is just ban above inflation mid-contract price rises. You sensed right, it was wrong. Get off it, you're paying too much. Hello, I'm Martin Lewis and this is the cunningly named The Martin Lewis Podcast. I do wonder what that's going to be about. And this is our big topic episode where each week we lead on one main subject to help you save. Usually most of it comes from my BBC Radio 5 live show with Adrian Charles, but not this week. It's a pod only, though Adrian did join me for the first hour, so you'll get to hear his dulcet tones too.

• 2:14Martin Lewis?

  In today's episode, our big issue this week is all about travel tips, tricks and hacks with the summer holidays on their way. Yes, well, you're thinking about packing your trunks or bikini. I'll be packing the pod with things you need to know or do now to slash cosp and stress when you get there. We've questions, and my answers to, on the cheapest way to spend abroad, travel insurance, roaming, single person supplements, there's news on Ryanair, passport checks and more. Plus, on a separate note, this week I was giving evidence to the Commons Public Accounts Committee about broadband, mobile and energy bills. So we're going to run through a little bit of that with you. We'll talk why haven't we seen energy standing charges be lowered?

• 2:56Martin Lewis?

  Why the regulators' rules for broadband and mobile have, in my view, backfired and actually increased the costs that you pay? And then on to water, there isn't a unified social tariff. How ridiculous. The tell us this week follows a holiday theme again. Travel reps and those who work in the holiday business tell us the secrets of the trade that can help us well away. And this week's mastermind is all about pensions. Will you get it right? More importantly, will Adrian? Play the theme tune.

• 3:41Martin Lewis?

  So Adrian, I'm going to welcome you today because we're in the pod only space now, which is a slightly different world to the world we normally are when we're live on the radio. How are you feeling, pod only? Used to it?

• 3:52Speaker 06

  Is it a different quality of air? Is it like England playing in a high altitude or is it a rarefied atmosphere?

• 4:00Martin Lewis?

  It's actually the opposite. It's like playing by the Dead Sea. There's so much oxygen here, it's a richness. Expect your limbs to be firing and your voice and your brain to be going, I mean, mastermind, you're going to go, it's easy? I don't know what the problem's been with this for years. I mean, it's a totally different way of working.

• 4:16Speaker 06

  Okay, right, bring it on. Bring it on.

• 4:22Speaker 06

  So you've been given evidence to the Commons Public Accounts Committee?

• 4:26Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, so I was called to give evidence over energy bills, broadband and water, specifically whether regulators are up to the job to help people, especially vulnerable people. I did it on Monday. It was quite an interesting session. I was there alongside a representative of Citizens Advice and a representative of the Consumer Council for Water. What they do is they put us on first and we build up all the problems and all the things that are going on. And then afterwards, they talk to the regulators and they start questioning the regulators. I've never done Public Accounts Committee before. I've given evidence to Commons Committees many, many times. Public Accounts, slightly different because it's sort of semi-linked to the National Audit Office. So it was an interesting one to do. What's fascinated me,

• 5:06Martin Lewis?

  though, is I've put some of the clips of the evidence out on my social media channels and they've gone absolutely massive. I mean, they've been really big, millions of views. And so it's quite interesting because obviously this tends to be seen as a rather arcane arm of what goes on in Parliament. But I think when you're showing it in isolation and it's issues-based, people do tend to feel a little bit interested in it.

• 5:28Speaker 06

  And a kind of a counter-argument to that, I think increasingly it might be seen where the real debate, the real scrutiny, the real content happens, whereas often what happens in the chamber is generating more heat than light.

• 5:45Martin Lewis?

  You're probably right. I mean, but it's interesting because I'm going through my daughter at the moment. I'm explaining to her the difference between the legislator and the executor and the judiciary. She's 13 and trying to do separation of powers with a 13-year-old, it's actually quite interesting how you get your head around what is the difference between government and Parliament. And because of the way that our system works, where you have MPs who are both part of the legislature and part of the executive, that is complicated. And I think it's important for people to understand, because it was interesting, I had a couple of people really rallying about, you know, certain people saying things. And it's like, well, they're not in government, they're in Parliament. Parliament isn't government. So when you're giving evidence here, these committees, yes, you do tend to get good debate and you get the issues raised. But it doesn't necessarily mean they have the power to do

• 6:30Martin Lewis?

  anything. They have a power to do a report, they have a power to hold government to account, but they don't have the decision-making power because that resides in government.

• 6:37Speaker 06

  Okay, so one thing you talked about is an issue with energy and that market that comes up again and again and again on this podcast, and that's standing charges.

• 6:48Martin Lewis?

  Two thirds of my mailbag on energy complaints is very simply about the standing charge. The moral hazard that you have to pay £315 a year just to have the facility of having gas and electricity, that we have older people who don't use gas for two thirds of the year and they're having to pay a daily charge for it. And the people who are lower users, if they reduce their usage, it doesn't make any difference because they're still paying the standard charge. That is by far and away the thing that drives people mad the most. And I always use the analogy, if I go to buy a book from a bookshop, they don't say, sorry, you have to be a member of a club and pay each month in order to buy a book because we have fixed costs. I don't have to pay my, my fixed costs are factored into the price of the book. Why do we have to have fixed costs factored into daily charge and variable costs factored into a unit rate? The shift could be done.

• 7:33Martin Lewis?

  And I was very hopeful with Ofgem. We had long conversations that it was going to bring a dual price cap. A low standing charge, high unit rate, and the normal standing charge and lower unit rate. And my view was that should be, people who are on the price cap should be automatically shifted to whichever one was beneficial for them based on their prior use, usage with an opt out basis if they chose not to. That was stopped and then it was moved to this system of, we're going to allow switchers tariffs and mandate switchers tariffs which have a lower standing charge. Now, my big problem with that is that doesn't help anybody who's vulnerable because they're the people who don't switch that the price cap was set up to protect in the first place. So switchers tariff don't help. And then we're going to trial switchers tariffs and they'll be coming in spring. Haven't seen any yet.

• 8:20Speaker 06

  Interesting. And how did you feel that was received?

• 8:23Martin Lewis?

  I mean, it was received very well. There were lots of nods and agreements and things like you can come again, especially when I was talking about the crapness of the way that things work. There was an interesting question that came from one of the MPs was, do you think this is deliberate? Is it conspiracy? And my answer, as it often is, Adrian, when it is something that goes wrong and people start to talk about these complex conspiracies to make things happen, I tend not to believe it. I tend to think it's crapness. I tend to think it's just people, you know, regulation and organisations aren't up to it rather than they're deliberately malfeasance to try and act against the public interest. There were quite a lot of nods when I said that as well.

• 8:59Speaker 06

  What are the other big points you tried to get across?

• 9:02Martin Lewis?

  I had a very long list and it was an hour's session. So one of the first things I talked about was the nature of the price cap and the confusion. So we have at the moment, the price cap has just gone up. It's gone up by thirteen percent on average. The price cap, of course, only governs your price if you're on a standard tariff of your company. The default tariff, the I haven't switched tariff, and it's going up thirteen percent. And as I explained to the committee, there's a effectively a five month time lag. So the rise in July is on basically on the back of what happened when the Middle East conflict started in March. Yet, the rate of fixes that are available right now, those fixes, their rate is based on what's happening now. So you currently have a seventeen percent differential.

• 9:46Martin Lewis?

  You've got a duality of pricing, one based on past price rises and another wholesale rates have come down a little bit, based on the fact that rates have come down. So currently, people who fix can save seventeen percent over the price cap. But most people don't because this is just too confusing for a lot of the public, and especially for vulnerable customers. I also went on in energy to explain that my real issue is, while I agree that Ofgem has made it so that if you're on the price cap, the default tariff, the backstop tariff that's meant to be there for people who don't switch, though you're meant to switch, prepayment is cheaper, it is cheaper than paying by direct debit. There's no competition in prepayment market. So everything I talk about fixing and doing that,

• 10:27Martin Lewis?

  it very, very rarely do we ever see a tariff where you can fix in the prepayment market, occasionally with smart prepay, but not in others. And most vulnerable people are on prepayment. Now, the way to cut your bills, and I'm not saying it's a great big, you go suddenly everything's going to be cheap, but it is cheaper, is to get yourself onto a competitive tariff like a fix or a specialist tariff. But there aren't for prepayment. So there was a real problem there. Again, the specialty was in vulnerable people. In water, well, I had a lot to say on water, but I think my biggest point is there are social tariffs on water that up to four million people are missing out on, which is where you can have the amount that you pay capped. Now, the thing about those social tariffs is frustratingly, every Company has its own rules to who qualifies.

• 11:11Martin Lewis?

  Some are based on what benefits you get, some are based on what income you have, some are based on an income assessment, some tell you, as I pointed out in the evidence, that it's based on your equivalized income. And I asked all the MPs, did any of them know what equivalized income was? And they didn't, and nor did I. And then they later asked one of the water regulators who said, yeah, and explained it. And it's a rather arcane way of calculating a certain equivalized income, depending on the number of people, the number of bedrooms. But clearly, if none of the MPs on the committee know what equivalized is, you can't expect vulnerable people to know it. So there's this huge problem with the social tariff, that I can't even tell you who's eligible. My rule of thumb is if you earn under £26,000, you could check it out.

• 11:53Martin Lewis?

  But then people get annoyed with me because they go, I earn £22,000, I didn't qualify, because every single water company is different. And the government has just missed an opportunity to have a universalized rules on the social tariff, which is just the obvious no brainer thing that they should be doing. We should quite simply have a social tariff rules that apply to every water company, so that it's easier to communicate and there isn't a postcode lottery. There were lots of nods on that one, too. We'll see if we get there. I mean, I talked lots. The one final thing I'll do is, we put out, from Money Saving Expert, we put out research this week, based about broadband and mobile bills. So do you know the new transparency rules, Adrian, that's been in for about a year? We have talked about it. It's not a must mind, don't worry.

• 12:34Speaker 06

  Yes, I believe so, yes. So you're not supposed to... Well, it's about changing the tariffs in the mid-term.

• 12:44Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, so what happened is Ofcom brought these rules in. It was not what I and Citizens Advice and others were suggesting. But basically said, we used to have mid-contract price rises for mobile and broadband that were inflation linked. So there'd be inflation plus three or four percent, which is of course inflation in its own right, and I and many others campaigned about that. And it went ballistic in 2024, when we saw prices rising by 17%. What Ofcom chose to do was effectively get rid of inflation-linked price rises, but not get rid of mid-contract price rises by saying, firms need to tell you in pounds and pence, when you sign up for a contract, what the rise is going to be. So they might say it's £20 now,

• 13:27Martin Lewis?

  and it'll go up £4 next April and £4 the April after in the two-year contract.

• 13:32Martin Lewis?

  Now, I thought that was a bad solution. Yes, it's transparent, but as I, again, as I said to the MPs, it's a bit like me saying it's okay if I come up and punch you in the face as long as I've told you in advance I'm going to punch you in the face. You know, are you going to have a huge price hikes? And we've done analysis of 47,000 tariffs, and I put this research to the committee, and in 75% of them, the new transparency system means people are having to pay more than they did on the system it was replaced to try and correct. And in 99% of them, so virtually all of them, the new system means customers are paying more than they would do if they did my suggestion, which is just ban above inflation mid-contract

• 14:16Martin Lewis?

  price rises. So the regulator has come in, intervened in the market, and its intervention has resulted in customers right across the country having to pay more. And now, as I said, they should just do the obvious. The bleeding obvious is you just ban. Now, I'd like to see, of course, what we all want is them to ban all mid-contract price rises. The problem with that is this strong argument comes back from the regulator, which is proxying for the companies on this particular one, saying if you do that, it might damage investment, and it might, because firms are unsure what might happen over two years, they might put the upfront price higher, which is why I have the compromises, saying it shouldn't go up above inflation. And as I, I think the phrase I used to the committee, and I did like it, it was one of those, you know, you sometimes say something, oh, I'll have to remember that one, so I'll see if I can remember it properly, was, they should have just done

• 15:00Martin Lewis?

  the bleeding obvious. The only thing that isn't obvious is why they haven't done the bleeding obvious and just ban above inflation mid-contract price rises. I mean, it is an absolute outrage, and the regulator's defending itself on this one, but there isn't any defence. Is its actions mean we all pay more when we sign up to a contract? So you can imagine how I went for that one, too.

• 15:22Speaker 06

  Okay, and before we get on to the rest of the part, the price cap went up this week.

• 15:26Martin Lewis?

  Yeah.

• 15:26Speaker 06

  Still worth fixing?

• 15:27Martin Lewis?

  Yeah. So let's just go through where we are right now. So again, strong reminder, the energy price cap dictates your price if you're on your company's standard tariff. And virtually all, barring home energy, they price at the price cap. So when it goes up 13%, the price you pay will go up 13%. Now, the July price cap of course is the least important because you've got July, August and September is what it covers. That's the lowest use period of the year. You know, it's a quarter of the year, but we only use about 15% of our energy in that period. What really happens is what's going to happen after that in October and January. We're now halfway through the October period because as I mentioned earlier, the price

• 16:11Martin Lewis?

  cap is based on a time lag and we're halfway through the period, the assessment period for the October price cap, and it's been high all the way. High or very high all the way. So we're currently looking at the October price cap being, well, some analysts say half percent lower, some say 1% higher. The same as July is the easy way to phrase it. It is very, very likely that the October price cap won't move much. So, and it's that compared to the July price cap that's just gone up 13%. So it's going to stay at those high levels. And while it's more crystal ball gazing, the most important period, which is January, February, March, is looking to be pretty similar too. So therefore, what you actually have at the moment is this perfect clarity of comparison. If you go on to a

• 16:56Martin Lewis?

  comparison site today, unlike last week when your savings would have been against the April price cap, even though the price was going up, your savings today will be against the current July price cap and the October price cap is likely to be similar. And with less certainty, I would say the January price cap is likely to be similar. So the amount that it tells you can save over the next year now is a much more relevant figure than we have had. And the cheapest fixes available today, as we're doing this, as we're recording this, are 17% cheaper than the current price cap. And they, of course, as it's a fix, you can lock in the rate. Now, this is the simple solution. There are other options

• 17:38Martin Lewis?

  out there, time of use tariffs, EV tariffs, solar panel tariffs, other things. But if you're on the price cap, if you're on that standard price, and if you're not sure you're on the price cap, you almost certainly are, unless you're on a fix, unless you're on a special deal, you're on the price cap, it is a no brainer right now to get yourself onto a, hopefully, a whole of market comparison. Go do a comparison. Comparison, lock in a cheap fix that's fifteen, sixteen percent cheaper than what you're paying right now. And you know it won't rise over the next year and you're already going to be saving straight away. And I would say if you don't go to a whole of market comparison site, I think there is only one that's whole of market by default. And I'm not allowed to mention it, which might give you a clue as to what it is. But if you don't go on to one, then what you always need to do is scroll around for the little button that says show all tariffs.

• 18:22Martin Lewis?

  Cause many of the cheapest tariffs don't pay comparison sites, so they hide them unless you tick that button. So you need to tick that button and then you'll see all the cheapest deals. But absolutely, this is almost perfect time to compare right now. Because you're getting a true comparison over what's going to be happening over the next year. And if you're on the price cap, it's a pants cap. Get off it. You're paying too much.

• 18:46Speaker 06

  So Martin, our aim today is to give people a pocket podcast, listen to everything they need to know and do now to be properly prepared to go away this summer. Minimising costs and stress so you can just enjoy yourself.

• 19:00Martin Lewis?

  Arm and brother.

• 19:01Speaker 06

  Okay, to get us into it, it'd be a good idea to have some jointy music. Is that producer, Simon, has he got anything for us?

• 19:08Martin Lewis?

  Oh, it scares me when you say that.

• 19:13Speaker 06

  I like it. It's got a seventies feel, like it.

• 19:17Martin Lewis?

  It does have a lying on the sunbed and you put your towel down early in the morning with a cocktail and an umbrella in it and a straw. Me and you, Adrian, sitting by the beach in the breeze. Is that the phrase? I don't even know. But we'll chin the breeze anyway. Shoot the breeze. What is it?

• 19:30Speaker 06

  We don't, we're not, well, I don't know, but I do know we can't keep this going for the whole thing, can we?

• 19:35Martin Lewis?

  I don't know. Shall we try?

• 19:36Speaker 06

  No, no, let's just fade it gently out.

• 19:38Martin Lewis?

  We just want to give you the idea.

• 19:40Speaker 06

  We've got the idea now. So let's start with a tip. You say, check your passport as soon as you can.

• 19:47Martin Lewis?

  Yeah. So let's do, there are some of the things and it's interesting because we're going to be doing the tellers later, which is what people who work for airlines or hotels or overseas travel businesses say. And one that just came up time and time again is for heaven's sake, as early as possible, check that you have a valid passport. Because it is a nightmare. And I've had people myself who've got in touch with me, who've been knocked. When they get to the airport, they're not allowed on the plane because their passport isn't valid. Or even worse than that, they're allowed on the plane, they get to the destination. They get to customs, they get passport and they're told it's not valid and they're sent home. I even remember one family and it was the child whose passport wasn't valid. And they're like, we can't send our child. So obviously they all went home and they had to go back. So here are the passport checks that matter.

• 20:31Martin Lewis?

  I want you to get your passport out and check now that on the day you enter the country, your passport has at least six months left on it, or three months if you're going to the EU. And even so, if you're going to the EU, even if it has three months left on it, that your passport under 10 years old. Now, that might sound confusing because passports tend to last 10 years. The reason is you can't do it anymore, but you used to be able to. Say you were renewing your passport after nine years and three months, so it had nine months left on it. You would be able to add the nine months left onto your 10-year passport. So your new passport would last 10 years and nine months.

• 21:14Martin Lewis?

  And therefore, it is possible for your passport to have more than three months left on it, but be over 10 years old. In the EU, that is prohibited. So if any of those things are sounding close, then I would strongly suggest you go and look up what the passport requirements are for the specific country you're going to. If you've got a couple of years left on your passport and your passport's well under 10 years, you're fine. Don't worry. But if you're getting close to those barriers that I've just mentioned, the six months or three months in the EU left on the passport, or that your passport is going to be over 10 years old, then just do a check now of what your specific country's passport requirements are.

• 21:54Speaker 06

  It wouldn't be a bad idea to send yourself a send later email for about, yeah, I'd say a year before your passport.

• 22:01Martin Lewis?

  A year delay send as well. On my, I have, in my outbox, I have about fifty or sixty delay sends. That's how I operate.

• 22:09Speaker 06

  I've got a tip on that itself. So did I. But as I mentioned to you, I ran my phone over on holiday, and that's a phone. And I've lost all later ones that were scheduled to be sent.

• 22:20Martin Lewis?

  Oh, you, mate, you probably need to do a screen grab of them. I have slightly different because I work, I have a corporate email system. So that mine has stood on loud. So I'm sort of saying.

• 22:30Speaker 06

  Well, I thought mine were, but apparently not. Anyway.

• 22:32Martin Lewis?

  Okay, that's a shame. Send yourself a picture of your delayed send emails.

• 22:36Speaker 06

  Yes.

• 22:37Martin Lewis?

  But do it on normal send, so it's in the inbox rather than in the delayed send out box. Anyway, it's probably not the tips we should be doing.

• 22:42Speaker 06

  No.

• 22:43Martin Lewis?

  Where are we going next?

• 22:44Speaker 06

  Okay, let's, we want some questions on how to spend abroad most cost effectively. Um, we'll start with Vicky. So she wants to know, do you take foreign currency already exchanged in the UK? Withdraw cash from the ATM abroad, use a British card to pay or get a travel money card. If it's a travel card, then which one? And do you use it to pay or to withdraw money from the ATM abroad? Just, just a few, just a, just a few to get you started.

• 23:12Martin Lewis?

  Well, I like that question because basically it's, Martin, explain what the cheapest way to pay abroad is.

• 23:17Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 23:17Martin Lewis?

  So I will do exactly that now. All right. So plastic tends to be your winner. Credit or debit cards, or in some cases prepaid cards, so they work in a slightly different way. This is the thing to understand. Normally, when you go abroad and you use your UK credit or debit card, the bank or the credit card company gets a near perfect exchange rate on the day. So whatever the exchange rate is, what's called the spot rate, the market rate, the bank or credit card company is getting within fractions, tiny fractions of a percent of that spot rate, that perfect rate, the best possible rate. What most cards do is they then add a non-stirling exchange rate fee.

• 23:57Martin Lewis?

  And that fee is normally typically around 2.75%. So let's call it 3% for ease of explanation, which means if you buy something that costs a hundred pounds worth of euros on that day's exchange rate, you will pay 103 pounds for it. The same if it's a hundred pounds worth of dollars or a hundred pounds worth of one, whatever it is, wherever you're spending, it's going to cost you 103 pounds. So the best way to spend is to get one of the many, and there are loads of them these days, specialist overseas spending cards. What they do is they don't add the non-sterling exchange rate fee. So you get the same near-perfect rate on the day, wherever in the world you're spending,

• 24:42Martin Lewis?

  that the bank or credit card company do. And that smashes the pants of Bureau du Change. Now, depending on which card, there are a range of charges that may be on these. There's often ATM charges. So there are three types of charges available on ATMs. First, if you're taking money out of an overseas ATM, the cash machine itself can charge you. You can't avoid that, apart from just go and see if there's another cash machine nearby that has a lower fee. The second point is there may be an ATM fee on the card, which means literally it says every time you use this card from an ATM, we'll charge you £1 or £2. The third is for credit cards specifically. You'll know my rule, Adrian, if you're using a credit card for reward or perks, you should always pay it off. In full.

• 25:27Martin Lewis?

  In full, exactly. Now, when you do that, there are some credit cards that for cash withdrawals will still charge you interest, even if you pay off in full. So those are the things that you need to watch for, which means generally, in most cases, the best thing to do is to get yourself a specialist overseas card and to use the specialist overseas card for spending on it, rather than to withdraw cash and to spend the cash you've withdrawn abroad. So when I say withdraw cash, I mean withdraw cash overseas and to spend the cash abroad. You are usually far better to spend on it. Now, I mentioned prepaid cards, I'll just do that very quickly.

• 26:12Martin Lewis?

  Some prepaid cards work exactly the same way. Some prepaid cards allow you to do something slightly different, which is you get the rate, you get the near-perfect rate on the day you load the card with money. So you're therefore locking in that day's rate. Now, you can see, hopefully, the benefit and dis-benefit of doing that. The benefit is if you've locked in when the rate's good, you've done well. If the rate moves against you. The dis-benefit, if you've locked in when the rate's bad, you've done badly and the rate moves against you. Personally, I tend to just say, I'll never be able to second guess the market, so I'll just get the rate on the day I spend and cross my fingers that it's going to work. The strategy that some people adopt, not me, is to say, I like the rate today.

• 26:55Martin Lewis?

  I'm going to close my eyes to the way that that rate moves because the rate today is one that I could afford to spend at. So I'm going to change all my currency using a top prepaid card on the rate that we have today and lock that rate in. And there's a half-half strategy that says, well, I'll do half my spending money. I'll do on a prepaid card locked in on the rate and the rest I'll do a specialist card on the day. And then I'll sort of hedge my bets between the two.

• 27:15Speaker 06

  So what do you think the best cards are?

• 27:18Martin Lewis?

  All right, so let me go through. I'm going to give you three cards. I have to say there are about 20 or 30 specialist overseas spending cards these days. And if you have one of those and you're happy with it, this is not a call from me for you to change it. This is just me saying, if you're getting a new one now, these are my top picks. Now, because we have such a wealth of these cards available now, what I've done to compare is I've looked at various different features that give you benefits. Let me go through them. So probably the top standalone pick today is the Lloyds Ultra Visa Credit Card. As it's a credit card, you should only be doing this if you're paying it off in full each month.

• 28:01Martin Lewis?

  In full, preferably by direct debit, because otherwise you're going to pay interest on the spending and that'll get rid of the gain. All the cards I'm going to mention, I'm not going to talk about it again, have the near-perfect exchange rate. Or I wouldn't be mentioning them in this section. Why is it my top pick? Well, you get the near-perfect exchange rate and if you're spending on this card, you also get for the first year 1% cash back, both on UK and overseas spending. So it's a good cash back card for the UK. You could just use this card for all your normal UK spending, as long as you're paying it off in full. And you're going to get 1% back. So a quid per £100 you spend, you spend £10,000 a year, that's £100 back. If you're abroad, then another way to think about it is not only

• 28:41Martin Lewis?

  Getting the perfect exchange rate, but the 1% cash back means you're actually getting 1% better than the perfect exchange rate. You're getting better than the spot rate. The main negatives from this card, apart from interest, if you don't pay it off in full, is that cash machine withdrawals have interest on it. So if you're getting this card, you primarily want to use it for spending and minimise your cash machine withdrawals. Just to put this in perspective though, the way the interest works out very, very, very roughly. If you're paying off in full and you take money out of a cash machine, it's about 1%. So you're still doing better than you would from most bureau de change, even with that cash machine fee on top, but you'd be even better spending. My next choice is the Chase debit Mastercard. So this is a debit card.

• 29:25Martin Lewis?

  The reason I'm picking this is because it's easy to get. So Chase is a bank account variant app. But crucially, when you get this card, you don't have to switch bank accounts. So you're not switching bank to do it. And it doesn't do a hard credit check. It does a soft credit check, effectively an ID check. That's one that doesn't affect your credit score. And it means almost everybody will be accepted for this card. Chase has, it's a debit card, so there's no interest obviously, and you can't go withdrawn on it. It has the same near perfect rates abroad. There's no cash back on it abroad. There is some cash back in the UK, but it's only on things like groceries or eating out or everyday transport and fuel. It's not, it's not a wide everything you spending on it. So basically, if you just want to pop it in your pocket, the Chase card's really useful.

• 30:11Martin Lewis?

  Just to say, Simon, can we have the music back? I need the music.

• 30:17Martin Lewis?

  Just to say, if you're currently on your sunbath and you're abroad and you're sitting there and you're going, oh, I'm really enjoying this podcast, but I've come away and I haven't got a specialist overseas card. What am I gonna do? I'm already on holiday. I've broken Martin's golden rule. Well, one advantage with Chase is you can sign up to the app and you can actually then, using the app, put this into your Google Wallet or your Apple Pay pretty much instantaneously. So you could do this on holiday and then you could pay using Apple Pay or Google Wallet while on holiday and get the specialist card straight away. You don't need to wait to do it. So if you're already there and you're already away and you've got your sangria and your umbrella, you could add yourself a specialist overseas spending card too. Cut the music.

• 30:58Speaker 06

  Thank you very much.

• 30:59Martin Lewis?

  And my final card that I would pick, and again, there are lots of others. The First Direct Debit Mastercard. Now, to get this, you need to switch, but switchers to First Direct at the moment are being paid up to £200, depending which route and which site you go through to switch. So you can be paid £200 for switching bank account, which would be good for your holiday spending money. The debit card also has near-perfect exchange rates abroad, and overall, it's a top-service bank account. So Lloyds ultras, if you just want a standalone credit card and you have a pretty good credit score and you're going to pay it off in full. Chase is the easy-to-get debit card if you just, you know, you don't want to switch bank account. First Direct, you get £200, which is going to probably for most people be more than you get cash back on Lloyds.

• 31:44Martin Lewis?

  You get £200 switching bonus and you get the debit card with it, but for that, you have to switch bank account. And that's where I'll stop.

• 31:50Speaker 06

  Okay, Sue, we're going to Cyprus soon. Even I know the answer to this. When paying with a card and the card reader asks, "Do you want to pay in euros or sterling", what is the best option, Martin?

• 32:01Martin Lewis?

  Adrian, answer it.

• 32:03Speaker 06

  Always, always the local currency. Euros, euros, euros, if you're in the euro zone.

• 32:10Martin Lewis?

  Well done. Finally, after all these years working together, you got one. Absolutely right, spot on. So, look, this is the thing to understand. When you're abroad, when it's offering you that dynamic currency conversion, it's saying, "Let us convert to you and then you'll pay in pounds." You have to think, it is then doing the conversion. The shop you're spending in, the overseas cash machine is who is doing the conversion? And the reason they want to do the conversion is because they add a whack of profit to the exchange rate. They give you a worth exchange rate. And this is the reason why, when you say, "No, I'll just pay in euros", it goes, "Are you sure? Do you really, really want to? We don't know what rate you'll get, but we can give you this guaranteed rate here." And you go, "I'm fine, it's fine, I'll pay in euros." And they go, "Are you sure?

• 32:55Martin Lewis?

  Please, no!" Because they want you to do it because they make money from it. So in this case, please listen to me, not them. The reason, if you've got a specialist overseas card, you want your specialist overseas card to do the currency conversion for you. That's why you got it. Even if you've got a bog standard UK card, in general, and I promise, and my wife always gives me a frown, when I go abroad, I actually go to a raft of different cash machines and like every time I buy something, I check the exchange rate. And just so I can say this... I have never seen an overseas shop or ATM that gives me a better rate than just a bog standard non-specialist UK card does with its 2.75% exchange fee.

• 33:40Martin Lewis?

  So even if you don't have a specialist card, you are better to say pay in the local currency. Now, I'm not guaranteeing everywhere in the world there isn't someone somewhere who's doing that, but I've never seen one when I've been abroad and I've never heard anybody tell me that they've found somewhere that is better than that. So as a safety rule of thumb, pay in the local currency, as my mate Adrian told you.

• 34:01Speaker 06

  Clive says, should I be withdrawing cash from an ATM abroad on a bank or a credit card? I think you've covered that, haven't you?

• 34:12Martin Lewis?

  Well, it is a little bit more nuanced. The problem with that question is, the answer is, it depends on which bank or credit card. So if you have a specialist card that has absolutely no fees for withdrawing cash abroad, that will smack the pants off a normal debit card. Even that Lloyds card where I said there was, you know, effectively it's 13% APR interest, which works out about a pound per hundred on a month if you're paying off in full. So if you're paying off in full, that Lloyds card has perfect exchange rates plus 1% ATM fee. A normal debit card would have a 2.75% exchange rate fee but may not have an ATM charge, it may well do, but it may not. So even so, your specialist credit cards beat the debit cards.

• 34:55Martin Lewis?

  But if it's a bog standard debit card and a bog standard credit card, I'd probably go for the debit card.

• 34:59Speaker 06

  Okay. There is Monzo good for travelling abroad, as I heard the percentage rate is low.

• 35:07Martin Lewis?

  Monzo is in the list of specialist overseas credit cards. It doesn't add a sterling exchange rate fee, so you get the near-perfect exchange rate. I think it's a Mastercard underlying rate that you get there. I mean, it doesn't have the cash back I've been talking about, but this basically falls into the category I mentioned earlier, which is... I'm not suggesting if you already have one of these that you need to change just because these are marginally better for things like cash back, but these are the ones I'd be getting if I was signing up today. The only issue with Monzo from memory is it only it limits the amount of fee free cash you can take from ATMs, quite restrictive on the amount of fee free cash you can take from ATMs. So it's good on spending but a bit restrictive

• 35:48Martin Lewis?

  on fee free cash from ATMs. I have the wonderful Claire sitting in for Rosie this week next to me who's going to go, I think it's £200 a month. Is it £200 a month? She was checking us out. I got it right, Adrian? £200 a month limits, which is quite low.

• 36:01Speaker 06

  Anthony wants to know, do you actually need to take cash these days?

• 36:04Martin Lewis?

  It depends where you're going. If you're going to a modern developed country, I wouldn't bother taking cash. I would just take my specialist card and I'd get cash out of an ATM. They have ATM at airport if I needed cash. But many places you go to, you don't need cash. It's a bit like being in the UK, you don't need cash in many places. In some countries like go to Iceland and places like that and cash is like, what's that? So, you know, the cash for, if you have to pay for the toilet, they've got a, you just beep your card when you're doing things like that. If you're going somewhere that isn't as developed, there are other payment measures, you know, if you go to China, then it's things like Alipay that you need and you need to work on different options. So it is worth doing a little bit of research. If you're going to Europe, basically, I don't think you need to use cash in most

• 36:48Martin Lewis?

  places in Europe these days. But if you're going to somewhere a little bit more offbeat or somewhere that's in the developing world, then cash may well be useful.

• 36:56Speaker 06

  Okay, there's been a change to Ryanair's policy for taking children on board?

• 37:02Martin Lewis?

  There has indeed, yes. Ryanair doing the right thing for once. Let's hope that doesn't need a right of reply. But anyway, yeah, so Ryanair was under investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority over the fact that it basically was breaking the rules and effectively making people pay to sit next to their child, whereas the rules say that you should be able to sit next to your child for free. Nor are the other airlines are doing it. It has now changed its policy. So if you are travelling with a child aged two to 11, obviously they're under two, they're sitting on your knee anyway, if you're travelling with a child aged two to 11, Ryanair will randomly allocate you free seats so that one parent is sitting next to

• 37:43Martin Lewis?

  the child aged two to 11. But it does note that others in the party may be separate. My suspicion, and this is purely based on speculation and not in any fact whatsoever, is in pretty much all cases, other members will be separate because what Ryanair wants you to do is pay to pre-book your exact seat in advance and pay to sit together. And that's how it used to operate the policy. Now, it is going to, if you're with your kids, it's going to do it for free on random allocation, which is a slight improvement. Pretty much all other airlines do that automatically if you're travelling with children. So if you're travelling with your children and they're under 11, I mean, different airlines have different ages, but generally 11 is the youngest old age group, then you should

• 38:28Martin Lewis?

  be sat so that they're sat next to at least one parent.

• 38:35Speaker 06

  Let's take a break from all the summer holiday tips and questions and whatnot into the tellers. What have you got for the tellers?

• 38:42Martin Lewis?

  Well, we're not breaking that very much, to be honest, because the tellers is, we did it last week as well, do you work for an airline, hotel or overseas travel business? If so, what are the big mistakes people make when going, flying or being abroad? And what are your top tips? Now, last week, we just did Flight Crew because we had so many brilliant tips from Flight Crew. This time, we're going to go to hotel staff and people who work in the overseas travel business. Why don't you start, mate?

• 39:06Speaker 06

  Okay, Vicky, I work in a UK hotel. Please check the hotel check-in times and don't assume you can check in early because you've got an event to attend. Either book the night before as well or make arrangements to get changed elsewhere. At 10am, there are still people in your bed. There speaks a woman who's had to deal with some disgruntled guests over the years.

• 39:26Martin Lewis?

  You can feel it, can't you? No, there's somebody, no, you can't have your room. It's 10 o'clock, you're checking that, you can just feel it. Kipper! Work for a hotel company, even if they can't do it cheaper, as online sites don't allow it, always book directly as you are much more likely to be upgraded, or at least less likely to get the last worst rooms. I would moderate that somewhat, I would always do my comparison and always try and find the cheapest room. I would see if the hotel can match it or beat it, but I wouldn't automatically book with the hotel if the hotel isn't offering you the same price as you can get elsewhere as cheaply. But if you can, booking direct can often save you. Although, if you're a cash back site user and you're getting the cheapest price for

• 40:08Martin Lewis?

  a site that offers cash back, and that cash back can be on hotels, it can be seven or eight percent, then you might find that reduction overcomes it.

• 40:15Speaker 06

  Okay, Cath, learn how to get to your hotel without Google Maps in case your phone fails. Keep the address of the hotel written somewhere, so you know how to get back there, basically.

• 40:25Martin Lewis?

  It's absolutely right. And it's interesting, because when we go abroad, if we're staying somewhere, the first thing I do, I always make sure my daughter knows the name of the hotel. And I suppose we should do, actually by telling her, you know it yourself, but I think it is a really good tip. Jill, we had this last week, the same tip.

• 40:43Speaker 06

  With airplane toilets.

• 40:45Martin Lewis?

  With airplane toilets. This is sort of, Jill, always wear footwear when using the bathroom, the floor is mingin', and there's a very nice little green sick-faced emoticon just right bang by that one.

• 40:55Speaker 06

  I would add to that, you know, it was quite a well-known British UK, a British hotel chain. And I got a piece of glass in my foot, a microscopic piece of glass from the bathroom floor in this hotel. And it tormented me for months, cost me a fortune in careopody before I finally managed to get it out. Because, I mean, I don't even blame the hotel if a guest has smashed a glass, you know, and you're always gonna, a tiny little bit's gonna be left. I mean, I didn't, I did complain to the hotel, I didn't expect any recompense, but it was a pain in the backside, as well as the foot.

• 41:34Martin Lewis?

  I know, we sort of treat it like we're at home, but we're never really at home, are you, when you're staying away? It's interesting, have you ever watched Four in a Bed, the Channel 4 programme?

• 41:42Speaker 06

  Um, I I haven't. The mind's slightly boggling.

• 41:45Martin Lewis?

  It's not, don't worry. It's it's basically, uh, they have four couples who run bread and breakfast. And they all stay in each other's and they rate each one, are the amount they attack over the cleanliness. And they go lifting up the mattress and spotting hairs under between the mattress and the bed stand underneath. And going through under curtains. And you just think, actually, if you've got a different guest in every day. To clean to such a high level of hygiene is really quite difficult. And you don't have that when you're living at home, because, okay, someone slept in your bed last night, but it was you. So it's it's absolutely fine. And it doesn't work that well. But yeah, tough. Barney, if you don't like your room, sort it with reception. Do not wait until you get home asking for your money back. It sounds stupid, but so many people do it.

• 42:28Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, good tip from Barney. We've got loads more of these, Adrian. Why don't we go back to sort of my tips? And we'll come back to the overseas travel biz section of the tellers later.

• 42:41Speaker 06

  Okay, travelling insurance, you have a big warning about getting it ASAP. I know, but quite a few people struggle to know how to do that. Here's Gene's question. I have yearly travel insurance which needs renewal in August. If I book now for September. And change provider in August, will I still be covered for holiday with a new provider?

• 42:59Martin Lewis?

  Okie dokie. So so let's do the ASAP. Many people will know this. I've been trying talking about it again and again, and people quote it back to me. So I'm glad it's one of those. It's a bit like in full. It's starting to become part of the lexicon. ASAP stands for as soon as you book. You should get your travel insurance as soon as you book. If you have already booked and you're listening to this and you don't have travel insurance. Then you should get your travel insurance now. Have you done it yet? Now?

• 43:24Speaker 06

  Yes.

• 43:25Martin Lewis?

  Have you done it now? Now!

• 43:26Speaker 06

  Now, it's done.

• 43:27Martin Lewis?

  It needs to be done. And the reason I might do this warning, and I do this warning every year, is. Half of what you pay for in travel insurance is to cover you in case something happens before you go that stops you going. That's the ASAB rule. And every summer, someone gets in touch with me, I'm not going to give details, so I'm going to paraphrase of the typical question I get. It's something like, I've been diagnosed with a serious condition, or my partner has, like cancer. We can't go on holiday, we're due to go in six weeks' time, as I'll be having treatment at that point, but the airline or the hotel won't refund. What do we do? Now, as I always say to them, unfortunately, unless you have

• 44:09Martin Lewis?

  flexible booking, the airline or hotel is well within its rights. And the analogy I use for this, so some of you will have heard it before, is if I bought a tennis racket and I broke my arm, I can't complain that the tennis racket is faulty. The tennis racket isn't faulty, the problem is with me. And unfortunately, the same is true, even if you have a serious illness with an airline or a hotel. They may, out of goodwill, allow you a refund, but they don't have to unless you had flexible refunds. So, what I then say to them is, this is why you have your travel insurance, and this is what your travel insurance is for. And someone always goes, oh, I haven't sorted it yet. And then I'm

• 44:50Martin Lewis?

  stuck. And it's a very awkward and difficult situation, because they're obviously in a desperate point in their life, they're having this serious treatment, and all I can want to say in my head is, why didn't you get your travel insurance ASAB? It costs seven quid. It's just a bit. So the ASAB rule is incredibly important. Now, can you remind me of Jean's question? Because I went off on one.

• 45:12Speaker 06

  She has yearly travel insurance, needs renewal in August. If, she says, if I book now for September and then change provider in August, will I still be covered for the holiday with a new provider?

• 45:24Martin Lewis?

  Okay, so this is really important about what ASAB means, what having travel insurance in place means. With an annual policy which covers you for all your trips away in a year, you need to have an annual policy in place at the time that you book. Now, if that annual policy is still live when your holiday is due, that's very simple. If it isn't, as in Jean's case, then what you need to do is you need to have a continuing or contiguous policy. So you need to have a new annual travel policy that starts on the day your existing policy ends. If you have that, then you should be covered. The vast majority of annual travel insurance policies will cover you for a holiday once

• 46:07Martin Lewis?

  the policy has ended if something happens within the policy term that stops you going. So in Jean's case, if she's got her annual travel insurance policy in August and she books a holiday in September and something happened now to stop her going, she would be covered. In most annual travel policies, I have to do the, you've got to check, but in most annual travel policy, she would be covered. Now, the easiest way to stop jurisdictional problems is to get an annual travel policy with exactly the same firm in that circumstance. So then it's covering you the whole period through, but generally wouldn't work or be that difference anyway. But you have to have that policy go forward. Worth noting, most providers only let you get a policy up to 90 days ahead.

• 46:50Martin Lewis?

  So if you're booking a holiday in January and your policy ends in December, you're just going to have to put a note in your diary three months before the policy end date to get yourself a new annual travel policy then, because otherwise you're really going to struggle to do it. But you should still be covered now if you've got your January holiday booked and you've got current annual travel insurance. While I'm on it, let me just do single trip policies because people get confused about this as well. A single trip policy is one that covers you for a single stay away, just one holiday. So let's say your holiday dates will be 7th to the 14th of September. What you would do to be covered and to fulfil my ASAB rule is you would go and get your single trip policy now. You would put in the dates that I won't cover for the 7th to 14th of September, but because

• 47:35Martin Lewis?

  you have, once you've paid for that policy, you've got the policy. Though some think, well, hold on, but I've only paid for a policy for seven and fourteen. It's about having an active policy. You are now covered under single trip insurance for that specific policy. If anything happens to you from this point, obviously within the terms and conditions of the travel insurance cover, that stops you going on holiday. So that's what ASAB means. Final one, I wasn't going to mention it, but I've just suddenly thought about it. People often ask me about packaged bank accounts in this. Some really good packaged bank accounts available at the moment, actually. Those are ones where you pay a monthly fee, say twelve, thirteen, fourteen pounds a month. And then you get your world travel insurance and your mobile phone cover and your breakdown cover all included in one. Well, if you have one of those, you effectively have

• 48:19Martin Lewis?

  an ongoing annual travel insurance policy that is automatically redone each year for you. So you are covered.

• 48:27Speaker 06

  We've got, well, not so much a question as a statement from Susan. A salutary tale, he said, everyone should have to take out travel insurance. A colleague in Spain, Fitz, thirty two years old, no pre-existing health conditions. I had a stroke ten days ago. After treatment and many tests, they found a hole in my heart and did surgery last night. The five-minute ambulance from my hotel to the first hospital and the initial short consultation that determined I had to go to a specialist hospital an hour away was seventeen hundred euros itself. So imagine what the final bill will be like. Thank goodness I took out good insurance. And thank goodness you're okay there, Susan.

• 49:08Martin Lewis?

  Very glad to hear you're okay, Susan. It's really interesting because I was doing, I did a thing called the National Money Assembly recently where I went to a sixth form college and it was streamed to three hundred schools and I took questions from sixth formers as part of financial education with the charity Young Enterprise. One of the questions was from an eighteen-year-old who's going on their first holiday abroad and says they can't afford travel insurance. Should I get it? And I was just like, well, yes, of course you should. And I also said, I'm not sure I believe you. You'll have to forgive me because travel insurance for someone your age costs about seven quid. You know, seven, eight, nine quid at the cheapest price. Clearly, your holidays cost you two hundred, two hundred and fifty quid. If you can afford the holiday, you have to be able to afford the insurance as well. And that might explain all the things it covers. So thank you, Susan, for your salutary warning. It's really important.

• 49:53Speaker 06

  Okay, actually another one. When my daughter went away travelling, I thought she'd be covered on annual travel insurance, but then it turned out, oh no, because her trip was longer than three months or whatever, she wouldn't have been covered.

• 50:06Martin Lewis?

  No, she'd need backpacker insurance for that one.

• 50:08Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 50:09Martin Lewis?

  And you have to go through that. So always be careful if you're doing a trip longer than thirty days, in some cases twenty eight, but longer than thirty days, you need to check your annual insurance will cover it. Sometimes they will, you know, if you're going for thirty one, you can just pay a small extra premium for them to cover it, that isn't too bad. But thirty days tends to be the cutoff period, once you're moving into something where you have to have a, you have to have special cover.

• 50:31Speaker 06

  Okay, Nina Moncton, how does the G HIC work and what does it cover?

• 50:35Martin Lewis?

  That's the Global Health Insurance Card that's replaced the European Health Insurance Card, though it still mostly covers EU countries and a couple of others. It is a wonderful addition and you should have that as well as travel insurance. What the G HIC does is it gives you treatment in a covered country, so I'm going to call it EU, there are a few others, in an EU state-run hospital or doctor's surgery at the same cost for a local. So if it is free for a local, it is free for you. And you can sign up, you should, you never pay for the G HIC. I have to be careful here, Adrian, because it's one of those redundant acronym syndrome ones. You can't say G HIC card, because it stands for Global Health Insurance Card, then you'd say Global Health Insurance Card, card. But it's quite tempting

• 51:20Martin Lewis?

  to say G HIC card. So you get yourself your G HIC, it's totally free, you can do it via the NHS website, there's no such thing as a fast track, there are shysters out there trying to get you to pay for it, you don't need it. Check if you've got an E HIC or G HIC, go and check that they're still valid. There are two million that people are carrying that are out of date and it's a lot easier if it is in date. You take it with you and it can be really useful if you need to go and see a GP or if you need to go to hospital and it can mean that you don't have to pay the excess on your travel insurance policy. Yeah, in fact, I got an email from William on this, which is worth reading out as an example. "In Spain, I had an extreme reaction to food I was wrongly served. My travel insurer was hopeless at responding to my calls, so I saw a private GP for..."

• 52:03Martin Lewis?

  Eighty quid. I was told before flying I had to get a stomach X-ray and other tests, which would have cost nearly a thousand euros. Luckily, I got a G hic after hearing your information. I took a cab to a public hospital, was X-rayed in three hours and ruled fit to fly home. Total cost a hundred and four euros instead of a thousand euros plus. Make sure you and everybody in your family group has a valid E hic or G hic.

• 52:31Speaker 06

  Okay. Anna's looking for holiday insurance and it sounds like she's been recently treated for cancer.

• 52:38Martin Lewis?

  So pre-existing medical conditions is always tough when it comes to holiday insurance. There are some good specialist medical sites which I'd always go to, like Medical Travel Compared, as well as the normal comparison sites, which tend to be able to find you something. It's also worth looking in certain cases at packaged bank accounts. I mentioned them earlier. Nationwide, it tends to be pretty good for this. So I think it's eighteen pounds a month with the Nationwide that you pay. You get all the family's mobile phones covered and UK and European breakdown cover, and you get worldwide family travel insurance with no maximum age limit, which is very important. You do, and you should, you can do this before getting the policy, you have to declare your pre-existing conditions. They may ask for a premium if you have pre-existing conditions,

• 53:20Martin Lewis?

  but often if you're struggling to find just standard travel cover, it's often a good way to go, even with paying the premium. Doesn't work for everyone, but it's worth trying. And when you're doing your holiday abroad and your travel, if you've got substantial pre-existing conditions, can be quite tough. You might find it easier just to go and do a comparison for a single trip for the individual trips that you're going to. I wish you the best with it, Anna.

• 53:43Speaker 06

  Okay, so let's look at car hire abroad. And I've got some questions and they're more, they're replicated by some Tony, for example, David as well. That's a similar question, but.

• 53:56Speaker 06

  When you have your own insurance to cover that question, when they say, look, well, you know, we'll, for an extra fifteen euros a day or whatever, you'll be covered even if it's your fault, et cetera, et cetera. How does that work?

• 54:08Martin Lewis?

  Okay, so you have, just checking, when you get car hire, early booking tends to work, go through a comparison site, that tends to be the cheapest way. You have bought a separate standalone excess insurance policy, is that what you're telling me?

• 54:21Speaker 06

  I have, and then, then I get, I just normally go to Cricshaw, and then they say, right, well, they look a bit grumpy, and they go, well, in that case, you're gonna have to, you know, charge an enormous amount, fifteen hundred euros or something to a credit card, just in case.

• 54:37Martin Lewis?

  This is absolutely true. So, look, when you're going to hire a car, you'll get to the desk in most cases, and they'll try and do this upsell, because you've got basic insurance, but it's the excess policy, it says, they'll basically say, if this car is scratched, I don't know, this is a generic foreign accent, do not ask me which it is, it's generic foreign. If this car is scratched, you will need to pay the entire amount of the excess, just for a scratch, you need this insurance, or it will be very expensive for you, and you won't get breakdown cover. And they say that, and they're charging you fifteen, twenty euros a day, which in some cases is more than the car hire it was itself, if you got it through a budget system, and this is where all the profit is. You know, it's the added ancillary that has all the profit in the insurance. So, right, these

• 55:21Martin Lewis?

  Adrian's talking about, I would suggest you go and get yourself a standalone excess policy that covers exactly the same thing, but you're talking more like one or two pounds a day, as opposed to fifteen to twenty euros a day. The easy place to do it is Money Maxim, which has an excess insurance comparison site, and if you're going away a lot, you get yourself an annual car hire excess insurance policy, you can go by the same routes. There are a couple of other discounted places, but if you just want an easy one-stop-shop, it's Money Maxim. So then, as you say, Adrian, this is what happens when you have one of those, you tell them they've got the insurance, and they tut, because these guys are often on commission about it, and they tut, and they, oh, it's not good, it's not the same, and then all the things that'll go wrong with it. And this is what they'll want you to do.

• 56:06Martin Lewis?

  They will want you to leave a refundable deposit to cover the excess. It can be 1,200 euros, 1,500 euros, 2,000 euros. So you're going to need to have the facility to do that. It will almost certainly, they will only do it on a credit card. Remember, they are trying to make this as difficult as possible for you. That's why you have hoops that you need to jump through. They will want it on a credit card, not a debit card. It's important to remember that. If you don't have a credit card, you may struggle with the excess insurance. And finally, they will usually want you to have a card that is in the name of the person booking. A few say it has to be in the name of the main driver. My safety tip, the person who books this should be the main driver and they should have a credit card that has enough room to leave 2,000 euros on.

• 56:51Martin Lewis?

  Because any one of those, if you break the chain in any one of those, they're going to say, no, that doesn't work for you. We won't accept it. And that's the problem. So you have to be prepared to do that. I've done it for years. I've never had an issue with it.

• 57:05Speaker 06

  Okay.

• 57:06Martin Lewis?

  And I've stood at car hire desks and I've seen families and they're going, but I thought we have this. And you can see them being pushed away from it.

• 57:14Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 57:14Martin Lewis?

  And I have on occasion gone, you are fine. You're fine, what you've got works.

• 57:19Speaker 06

  My, my question is this though. I've, I've found myself worrying, hang on, what on earth would happen if I did have a bump? So I'll go back and somebody's, you know, driven into the side of the car and it's still drivable. What happens when I give it back? They said, okay, well, we're going to help ourselves to that 1,500 quid. You, you, you, you put on the credit card for the excess and then I have to claim it back from whoever I've got the annual insurance from?

• 57:45Martin Lewis?

  I'm not going to answer your question. I'm going to let Matt do it for me. Matt emailed me a couple of weeks ago to say this. Thank you for highlighting car hire excess insurance, something I learnt about from you. Very kind, Matt, thank you. My wife and I took it out for our Sicily honeymoon. I reversed into a lamppost on the third day. Probably too excited about the joy, weren't you, Matt? It was all wonderful on the honeymoon. You were all loved up. There were red Valentine's hearts flaring your eyes and you missed a lamppost. Wing and bumper all dented, triggering the full 1400 euro excess. The insurance covered every penny and the premium was only 21 quid. So we could carry on enduring the trip without worrying about a huge upcoming bill.

• 58:29Martin Lewis?

  Everyone should be considering it. So yeah, the answer is Adrian. They'll take the money off your card. You will then send them what happened, the the excess insurance company, the standalone company. You'll send them that, you'll send them the details and they will give you that money back. That's how it works.

• 58:44Speaker 06

  Right, okay. So it's not without faff, but it does work.

• 58:48Martin Lewis?

  I mean, the safest thing to do is not to have an accident. You know, but if you're going to have an accident, there's always going to be faff.

• 58:53Speaker 06

  Somewhere down the line.

• 58:54Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, and there'll be faff with, and you're going to have arguments that if you're doing it, even if you get the the company's insurance. There's always arguments about the level of faff and all this type of thing. So there's going to be faff. But there's, if we just put this in perspective, let's say you're going away for 10 days. They're going to be charging you, say, 150 to 200 euros for this excess policy that isn't necessary when you could be getting it for 20 euros. So the question to you is, is it worth the limited? Because I tend to get really good feedback from the excess insurance companies that they tend to pay no problem once you've got the receipts and stuff. I'm sure someone will have had a problem somewhere. The limited faff that that involves for the 180 or so euros saving.

• 59:32Speaker 06

  Okay, got it.

• 59:33Martin Lewis?

  Cool. With that, you've been asking me questions. It's time for me to ask you one.

• 59:37Speaker 06

  All right.

• 59:45Martin Lewis?

  Okay, Adrian, welcome to Money Mastermind.

• 59:50Martin Lewis?

  The score, after you got one right last week, currently stands that Adrian has got 20 right and 41 wrong in this three option multiple choice quiz. Which means sadly, you remain.

• 1:00:05Martin Lewis?

  That's no better than random chance. Here you are. Are you ready?

• 1:00:09Speaker 06

  Yes.

• 1:00:09Martin Lewis?

  Our Adrian is at a village fete, getting nervous. He has, sadly for us, given up his five live broadcasting career. To try and make it big with what has been his long term secret side hustle. Yes, Adrian has a Noddy Holder tribute act. It's Christmas, it's Christmas. Can you give us a go?

• 1:00:30Speaker 06

  No.

• 1:00:32Speaker 06

  It's the sure answer.

• 1:00:35Martin Lewis?

  Oh, that's the best bit of the pod so far for me. There are literally thousands of people in the tent watching the result of the homemade chutney competition while Adrian is appearing next door in the community centre. It's just him, Hilda and Nancy who are styling it out as they thought it was a Noddy and Big Ears act. And there's a small whippet who looks as if it has made life choices as poor as me when I started writing this question. Anyway. Poor Adrian is there in his glittery top hat, tinsel trims but waistcoat and platform boots, contemplating the future, specifically his pension. He had assumed he'd put £2,000 a year from savings into a SIP, a private pension, knowing he'd be earning so much it would automatically claim in basic rate tax relief for him, turning

• 1:01:19Martin Lewis?

  his £2,000 into £2,500. Now, though, he realises the glam rock income may be a pipe dream and he's wondering what happens if he doesn't even earn enough to pay income tax. So all that, Adrian, boils down to this question. If you pay £2,000 a year into a SIP, which is just a self-invested private pension or any other similar private pension would work the same way, so don't get hung up on the SIP bit, and you are a non-taxpayer, which of these is correct? A, you still get the £500 boost automatically as if you were a basic rate taxpayer. B, you only get the £500 boost if you apply to HMRC and ask for it to be added.

• 1:02:03Martin Lewis?

  C, you do not pay tax, so you do not get the tax relief.

• 1:02:07Speaker 06

  Um, I think it's C.

• 1:02:10Martin Lewis?

  Tell me why.

• 1:02:12Speaker 06

  But because logically, why would you get tax relief if you don't pay tax?

• 1:02:17Martin Lewis?

  Okay, there is definitely logic in that.

• 1:02:21Speaker 06

  I mean, I can sense already it's wrong, but I stand by the logic of my logic.

• 1:02:26Martin Lewis?

  You can never sense anything. I don't know that you can sense it. I'm just querying, I'm teasing it out, I'm seeing where you stand. Are you going with C as your final answer?

• 1:02:33Speaker 06

  Yes.

• 1:02:38Martin Lewis?

  Sorry mate, you sensed right, it was wrong.

• 1:02:42Speaker 06

  I was right about something, no get a point for that.

• 1:02:44Martin Lewis?

  I can't give you a point for that, but well done on that little bit anyway. Now, you may remember, we have talked before about pensions for children.

• 1:02:51Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 1:02:51Martin Lewis?

  And children, of course, the vast majority of children are non taxpayers. So, providing the private pension works at relief at source, which is where there is automatically 20% added a basic rate tax. So if, by the way, if you're a higher rate or top rate taxpayer, you can get the extra tax back through your self assessment tax return because you should be reclaiming all the tax on what you put in. But if you're a non taxpayer, there's a rule that says you can effectively have a contribution of £3,600 a year into a pension and you get tax relief, which means you can put £2,880 in, the extra tax is added automatically to give you the £3,600. And when we've talked about it in the context of grandparents setting up pensions for their grandchildren,

• 1:03:33Martin Lewis?

  this is because they get that tax relief. The grandchild still gets the tax relief even if they have no income. And that applies to everybody, not just children, it applies to adults too. So if you are a non taxpayer saving into a pension, you still get the effective 20% relief as if you had paid tax at 20% up to a maximum gross contribution of £3,600 a year. It's well worth knowing, as long as it is a pension using relief at source. There you go.

• 1:03:59Speaker 06

  Got it.

• 1:04:00Martin Lewis?

  Thanks mate.

• 1:04:01Speaker 06

  Next time I will get it right and I will know it's right.

• 1:04:04Martin Lewis?

  I know, but the problem is you're now 20 right and 42 wrong. And so if you get two more right in a row, then we move you off no better than random chance.

• 1:04:15Speaker 06

  I'll do my best next week.

• 1:04:16Martin Lewis?

  And I'm really not trying to trick you, there's no tricks in these questions.

• 1:04:19Speaker 06

  Okay.

• 1:04:20Martin Lewis?

  That was just a straightforward question and I don't want to tease you, but we have talked about it before.

• 1:04:24Speaker 06

  Okay, right. I accept the admonishment and the implied criticism and I take him in good heart.

• 1:04:29Martin Lewis?

  Now, I've used up your five lifetime, haven't I? So I'm going to switch, I'm going to switch and we're going to do like a substitution in World Cup sense.

• 1:04:36Speaker 06

  Get the underperformer off.

• 1:04:38Martin Lewis?

  No, it's not the underperformer. No, no, no. Listen, we take Jude Bellingham off. It's done. You know, we've had you there, you've played out, you've performed brilliantly. We think it's time just to have a little bit of different energy and to move it across now and we're going to bring in podcast producer Simon.

• 1:04:55Martin Lewis?

  Okay, so Adrian has left the studio. We have had our hydration break. Podcast producer Simon is no longer pressing the buttons for the music, although it's not actually technically him who does that. And he's him, we get to hear him live. Welcome to the pod, PPS, how you doing?

• 1:05:10Speaker 02

  I'm absolutely delighted to be here. I spent the record so far, I just spent sort of stretching, making myself ready for this super sub appearance right at the end.

• 1:05:18Martin Lewis?

  You're limber, you're limber, you're up. Adrian's time has to go, he had to go and record something else. So we're going to be carrying on. I think we've got a few more questions, sort of the odds and ends to finish on random different topics. So why don't we do those?

• 1:05:28Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, we've got a few to get through just at the end. Angela, roaming charges for USA. We are on Sky and EE, so we'd have to pay charges. Is there a better alternative?

• 1:05:39Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, I mean, these days, if you're going outside Europe, it's all about eSIMs. ESIMs is a virtual SIM card, so you don't get anything physical. You can sign up to it really easily. Effectively, it then roots your data and all your data service through the eSIM. I mean, you're probably paying something like a tenner for 30 gig that lasts a couple of weeks while you're in the USA, which where you'd be paying, I don't know, seven, eight pounds a day. I don't know your specific price, but typically seven or eight pounds a day it can be if you use your own mobile network. So you wouldn't take calls through it, but you could call through WhatsApp through it, using its data on there and you get the data when you're abroad. There are lots of different eSIMs, lots of different companies. So go and look up eSIMs, that's your easy win.

• 1:06:23Martin Lewis?

  I've used them many times, it's really easy.

• 1:06:25Speaker 02

  Next question is from Fay. She starts by saying genuine question. I'd like to clarify, all questions are genuine.

• 1:06:29Martin Lewis?

  We don't like the implication that they're fake questions.

• 1:06:32Speaker 02

  But she has quite a serious one. She's saying, if the government wants to keep children in school and have been fining parents for a number of years now to prevent them taking them out, can anything be done to stop holiday price hikes at peak times? If there could, the issue of taking kids out...

• 1:06:46Martin Lewis?

  Would be reduced. Personally, we always pay the fine as it's still cheaper for summer holidays. And my time with the kids on holiday is more important than school for a week when they were at an age where the impact was minimum. Note, I did not take them out in the final years. Well, look, this is a constant thing that people talk about. The problem is, holiday pricing by definition, if you're going abroad, is not a UK issue. It is a worldwide issue. It is about demand. And clearly in the summer holidays, the UK summer holidays tend to align with other European holidays and, you know, America as well. And therefore prices go up because people want to go on holiday more. So there's more demand. And when demand increases under the rules of supply and demand, costs go up. Now, there are lots of ways it could be done.

• 1:07:27Martin Lewis?

  It could be done by spreading holiday dates so that there are more dates that people in the UK have that are not covered by other holiday dates. So different schools go on for different times. Equally, your system, I mean, you're breaking the rules. I cannot officially condone you breaking the rules. And what I would say is it would seem to me, certainly when you're not in examination years, that there would a little bit of tacit acceptance that there is a price issue here. So you allow parents, I don't know, one or two days a year that they're allowed to take their kids out of school under this reason. It's like a two strikes and you're out. But any more than that you can be really strict on might be particularly helpful. But unfortunately, the honest truth of it is supply and demand. Now, we can be clever here.

• 1:08:08Martin Lewis?

  You know, so if you're in Scotland, then going away before the English school holidays start can often be a lot cheaper. If you're in England, then going away in the last couple of weeks of the English school holidays, and the Welsh school holidays are similar as well, can be far cheaper. People always tend to go away in the first weeks, much more expensive. Going away in the last weeks of the summer holiday is often much cheaper to book. If you're in the north of England, even better if you want to go away in those last couple of weeks when Scottish schools are back and you could book yourself to fly from a Scottish airport, you can find that prices get even cheaper. So there are ways to work around this. Nothing is too good. But you're right, it is a real frustration many people find. Although it is worth remembering, there are many people who can't afford to go on holiday at all, especially going abroad these days.

• 1:08:51Martin Lewis?

  I mean, we've done a whole programme about going abroad. I am very mindful that when I do polls on it, 30 to 40% of people do not take overseas holidays.

• 1:08:57Speaker 04

  Ilian asks, should we trust airport parking lots that cost more than the flight itself? Looking forward to the break.

• 1:09:04Speaker 02

  And avoiding the sneaky convenience traps this summer.

• 1:09:08Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, I mean, it's really interesting because booking direct with an airport is both the cheapest and the most expensive way to do it. If you're going to do it on a regular shift, then you'll often find it's incredibly expensive. There are a range of different airport parking comparison apps out there which you can use. And there is a new compare the comparison airport parking tool out there, which I cannot tell you about. And and if you go through those, you will often find a much cheaper price. Although occasionally, people who fly regularly, there are special routes if you're booking on the last day, you may be able to get cheap parking. I mean, just to give you an example of the price differentials. This week, if you'd gone to Manchester Airport without a booking, it would have cost you £500 a week to park.

• 1:09:49Martin Lewis?

  But the cheapest found using the comparison site was £76 a week. Now, to put that in context, that is still a booking on the day price. That's not an early booking discount. And in fact, this could even be done on the way to driving to the airport. You could check and find yourself cheaper parking as long as you're booking before you actually get there. Obviously, it needs to be done by the passenger, not the driver. I'm not advocating a driver does that as they're going there, but the passenger should be doing it. I'll give you another one of my case studies. Rachel emailed, I needed parking at Liverpool Airport. The cheapest was 94 quid. Thought it was worth checking by the compare the comparison site checker. Literally two minutes later, I'd booked for 68 pounds, simple as that.

• 1:10:33Martin Lewis?

  So the key really is to make sure you're going right across the market and get it searching as many different places as you possibly can.

• 1:10:39Speaker 02

  And Meneh asks, why do single people have to pay so much extra in single person supplements? Especially when we are given a single room.

• 1:10:47Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, this is incredibly frustrating and it's a question I get a lot. Some of it is the economics, because while you have a single room. Pricing for holidays abroad tends to be based on two people sharing a room. So the price per person you get is predicated on two people sharing one room. So you have two flights and one hotel room. You have one flight and one hotel room. And the proportionate cost on a hotel of a single per traveller, even in a single room, is not necessarily half the cost of two people in a double room. Cleaning, reception, other facilities that go in there, the price does not exactly half.

• 1:11:32Martin Lewis?

  So there is a little bit of justification here for saying that if you were to halve the cost of two people, then the cost of the hotel would tend to be more than half the cost of two people for a single traveller going by themselves. And that's where the single supplement comes in. So I've done the justification from the hotel industry. Of course, we never know whether there's profiteering going in on top of that as well.

• 1:11:58Martin Lewis?

  And then before we sign off, Simon, let's just finish off some of those tellers. Overseas travel biz, I'll start with anonymous. I'm the owner of an airport transfer company and after 30 years in travel, I've seen the same mistakes over and over. Turning up late because the airport's only 20 minutes away until there's an accident, roadworks or a QWIT security. Not checking passport expiry rules for the country they're visiting. Packing valuables, medication and the change of clothes in checked luggage. Assuming they'll have mobile data abroad without checking charges. Travelling with just one bank card, it's a very important point, even if you've got your cheap specialist one, take another one too. Hopefully, we've covered lots of those in the pod, so you're aware of them, but it's interesting to see them play out in the practicality.

• 1:12:38Speaker 02

  Wendy's got an excellent one here. If there's more than one of you travelling, split outfits between cases. If one goes missing, you'll still have things to wear.

• 1:12:46Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, and always keep a spare pair of underwear in your hand luggage. Denise, Claire here, Claire is sitting next to me. Claire agrees, do you keep, yes, she nods on that one. Yeah, absolutely.

• 1:12:56Speaker 02

  Because otherwise you would have to wear Lara's outfits, wouldn't you?

• 1:12:59Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, I would, I don't want to wear Lara's outfits. Although actually, if you've got the right travel insurance policy and your luggage does get lost, then... It's actually, it should actually be quite a nice little shopping trip because they cover you for a certain amount of outfits that you can go and buy new ones. I've had that happen to me. Denise says, travel insurance, travel insurance, travel insurance. Former British consul here, thank you, ma'am. Trust me, you don't want to be caught out with no travel insurance. The embassy can't and won't bail you out. The fact that travel insurance can pretty much cost less than the price of your holiday manicure or pedicure, or the price of two to three airport pints, it's an absolute no brainer. Though if you and family can afford hospital bills and a private aircraft medical, then crack on without it. Fly economy, not false economy. Go Denise. I wish I'd read that out in the

• 1:13:43Martin Lewis?

  travel insurance section earlier. I love that.

• 1:13:45Speaker 02

  Ian, who works at a travel agent, says that one of his customers took three Valium before she boarded her flight home from Canada, but she had to be carried off the plane because there was a technical problem before takeoff. Then had no tablets left for her flight home the next day.

• 1:14:01Martin Lewis?

  Oh, wow. There's a, wow. I don't think it speaks for itself. Rachel, not in the travel business, but I work in a pharmacy. So many people forget to order their life-saving medication until the last minute, then expect the pharmacy to have it ready as, I'm going on holiday this afternoon, please order your important meds in good time.

• 1:14:19Speaker 02

  And Sarah says, always remember to not be wholly reliant on Apple Pay or Google Pay to work 100% of the time. Remember to take physical cards with you. Take more than one physical card, have backups. Don't have everything in one purse or wallet. Remember to have different pins for all the cards.

• 1:14:35Martin Lewis?

  Very sensible. And we'll finish on this one. Sarah, people who book a holiday to a hot country, I'm just one of the frustration that's clear in it, then complain the floor is too hot to walk on around the pool, or the sand on the beach is too hot. As an ex holiday rep, the things we heard people complain about, you would think it's their first day on the earth. Yeah, flip flops, little bit sandals, something like that, always helpful. Sand gets very, very hot. And that, Simon, seems a good way to end. If you are going to be going on holiday in the next few weeks, we wish you a joyful time. If you're not going on holiday, don't worry, we're still here to keep you company on the podcast. Of course, though, you can take the podcast on holiday with you, too.

• 1:15:18Martin Lewis?

  That's it for this week. We tend to put out a new podcast episode every Thursday and Monday. The Monday One's the Question Time pod where you get to ask me absolutely anything and everything, open brackets within reason, close brackets. If you've enjoyed today's show, please tell your friends you've been listening to the Martin Lewis podcast. And why not subscribe and leave us a review? Then your pockets and us will be pleased with you. And if you haven't enjoyed it, and you've been listening this long, you've only got yourself to blame.

• 1:16:01Speaker 03

  Martin Lewis is the founder of MoneySavingExpert.com. But of course, other consumer and price comparison websites are available. You can get in touch with Martin's podcast production team by emailing [email protected]. The offers and rates mentioned in the podcast are correct at the time of recording. However, if you are listening on demand, it's worth double checking as details can date. Remember to subscribe on BBC Sounds and leave us a review however you listen.

• 1:16:37Speaker 02

  It often starts with a question. What were lines doing in York in the third century? Why was Jeremy a lonely snail? Then we search for answers.

• 1:16:47Speaker 03

  It's one of the first times, really, that you consistently see someone painting teeth. I know that sounds bonkers.

• 1:16:51Speaker 04

  If I was going to define mathematics, I would say it's the study of structure.

• 1:16:55Speaker 02

  As I was doing the research for the programme, my jaw just dropped further and further down. In Our Time is a world-class seminar every week. Watch the discussions unfold and explore over a thousand conversations in our archive. I'm Nisha Glennie, and every week I'm joined by expert guests to explore the ideas that shape our world. In Our Time, listen on bbc.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 1:17:25Speaker 02

  Coffee? Love a cup of tea.

• 1:17:27Speaker 03

  I'll have tea, too.

• 1:17:28Speaker 02

  Tea for me, please.